Sunday 22 February 2015

It’s the end of another hot weekend. Looking at the date cheers me up a little about that though, because there’s only another week or so of actual summer, and even though we’ll have hot weather after that, at least I’ll know it’s on the way out.

We had a few things to do this weekend. Nicholai played cricket Saturday morning, although he came home fairly despondent after his team lost and he went out for a duck.

Emma’s friend Maia came over yesterday too. Her mum was working in town so Maia came with her, and when I texted them to say it was okay Maia just walked up to our house. She’s in year 7 this year so Emma hasn’t seen her for a while, but they seemed to just pick up where they left off and the two of them had fun playing together. I asked Maia how she was enjoying high school and she just said, “Homework”, so I think Maia’s finding that a bit much!

We dropped Maia back with her mum and then drove over to Steve and Jean’s place for a birthday dinner for Nicholai. It’s not his birthday until next Friday, but this was Brett’s weekend with the kids so we thought we may as well do it now so that all the cousins could be there.

Mostly I knitted while we were there, it’s become my coping mechanism. I can sit in the living room and chat to whoever is around, but I have something to do with my hands and something else to focus on when people talk shit or whatever. It was also good because I pretty much finished knitting the next stripe of the tree sweater too!

It was kind of funny/tragic at dinner though. Troy and I started doing ‘good thing/ bad thing’ with the kids at dinner years ago- I think Nicholai was probably about four and we were trying to get him to talk to us, and to begin to see that life was a balance, rather than extreme happiness and absolute soul-destroying misery. Anyway, Steve and Jean picked this up from us and then introduced it to the other families, so I think maybe we all do it now. (Well, we still do, I don’t know about the others). Jean has changed this for birthdays though, so on birthdays we go around the table and say a good thing about the birthday person. So last night was Nicholai’s turn.

He got through the first couple of people speaking, but then Jean said how much she likes that for thirteen years he’s always been happy and excited to come to their house and that she loves having him, and Nicholai’s face just crumbled. She held out her arms for him to have a hug and he pretty much just howled and then hid his face in her shoulder for the next six people. It didn’t end there- I admit that I cried too, just because he’s my little bear and he was so upset. But Soren was the last one, and when he realised that everyone was looking at him and expecting him to come up with something to say he just panicked and started crying too! He’s really not confident about speaking in front of people. So yeah, it wasn’t quite as joyful an activity as it should have been, just a bit too emotional really!

It’s just impossible to believe that Nicholai is going to be thirteen! I’ve got four more days to get my head around that idea…I don’t think it’s going to be long enough.

We went out and did a bit of random shopping this morning, getting all those oddments that you need but can never be bothered going shopping just for that. Picked up my photobooks and a new computer lapdesk from Officeworks, a plant and a pot and some fertiliser and weedkiller from Bunnings, some timers from Big W, a dog bed from the Reject Shop, and then some hot cross buns for lunch from the supermarket.

We needed timers to replace a couple of broken ones for measuring poker chip time, and I’ve also decided we need one in the bathroom. Jericho and Soren have taken to getting in the bath and insisting they are clean after forty-five seconds or something, which is clearly impossible. Nicholai has also started having showers where he stands and contemplates his life, which is a lengthy process and a ridiculous waste of water. Hence the timer- to keep some children in the water, and to keep out other children who think long showers are going to happen here.

The dog bed…I am such a sucker. I bought it to take to school and put in the library, so Luna has a comfortable place to snooze while I’m working in there! She is so spoiled and I am so foolish about her!

Speaking of pets though, the plant we bought at Bunnings was to decorate Godzilla’s enclosure. Troy and I also went out last night at his parents’ place and picked through their woodpile for suitable logs for Godzilla, so his place has had a bit of a makeover today. The new logs offer him a bit more shelter from rain, although one of the logs has a little hole in it and when I went out later on he was sticking his head out of it and looking around and it was hilarious.